5 Week Fitness

On Tuesday, we talked about how important it is to have patience and trust that what you are doing is working. However, while patience is important, you also want to switch up your routines from time to time. There are a few reasons for this:

You do not want to dry yourself out. After weeks or months of doing the same workout regime, eating the same healthy foods etc. you might start losing motivation. On top of this, your body will hit physical plateaus. Eventually you will start building muscle at a very slow pace because your muscles are trained to know what movements and weights you are going to do. 

So we have reached the fifth week of our 5WeekFitness page. For this week, we want to talk about ways to motivate yourself to keep going and the importance of patience in fitness. 

People often give up on workout plans, diets etc. because they do not think it is working. This is almost always because people quit too early. It does not matter how good your diet is, how hard you workout at the gym, what supplements you take etc. you will not see a huge change in your life or body in one or two weeks. You might feel better immediately, but it takes a long time to see actual results. Additionally, results come at such a slow pace that it might be hard for you to notice them at all. Some people take before and after pictures of themselves because it allows you to really see the progress you have made. 

So you worked hard all week long. You worked out everyday and ate healthy throughout the entire week. Now you have reached the weekend where you probably will not be eating as good/ drinking with friends, sleeping late etc. In this post we are going to discuss some common mistakes people make on the weekend.

1. Drinking - Drinking on a Friday night after a long week is no big deal. Drinking here and there is not going to ruin your diet. If you want to be extra careful, you could avoid beer which is more fattening than liquor. However, one or two nights of drinking each week will not kill you if you have been honest throughout the week.  

2. Strict Dieting - Cheat days are not a bad thing. If you are following a strict diet and you never bare off that course, your metabolism is going to significantly slow down. A cheat day here and there will switch things up and speed up your metabolism. 

Keto Diet - Keto is a diet designed around eating an extremely high level of fat and protein with minimal to no carbs. Eventually, your body will go into a state of Ketosis. This is a metabolic process where, when your body is derived of carbs (glucose), it will burn fat storage instead.

Intermittent Fasting - This is a diet that separates your day into two periods. Your fasting time and your eating time. Here you have an 8 hour window each day where you can eat pretty much whatever you want. However, for the other 16 hours of the day, including sleep of course, you are fasting. There are other ways to intermittent fast; however, this is the most common way. 

Eating Clean - This is simply eating only clean and nutrient rich foods. This is centered around lean proteins, such as chicken or fish, and complex carbohydrates with a mild amount of fat. Usually done eating 4-6 small meals per day in order to increase metabolism. 

If It Fits Your Macros - This diet is all about your macros, which are protein, carbohydrates and fats. Based on your weight and current goals, you can calculate how much of each macro you should eat per day. Once you have that, you can pretty much eat whatever you want as long as you are hitting your macro numbers each day. This involves a lot of measuring and weighing foods. 

Earlier we walked you through a pull workout. Today we are going to break down an intermediate push workout with 5 exercises. 

1. Flat Barbell Bench Press

The bench press is the optimal starting place for your workout because it is usually the heaviest lift. Therefore, you want to complete it at the beginning of the workout when you have the most energy. 

2. Dumbbell Chest Flies

Some people would argue you should switch up body parts on push days like going chest then shoulders then triceps followed again by chest, shoulders, triceps. That is up to you; however, we prefer chest, chest, shoulders, shoulders, triceps. 

3. Dumbbell Shoulder Press

Sticking with heavy movements first, you want to complete the shoulder press as the first exercise during the shoulders section of the workout. 

4. Lateral Delt Raises

This is great exercise for building width of your shoulder. Remember, you do not hit the rear delts on push day even though they are a part of the shoulder. 

5. Triceps Rope Push Down

Finish the workout with some triceps and call it a day. 

Links to the Images

https://www.google.com/search?q=flat+barbell+press&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS710US710&sxsrf=ALeKk03vK6MnA5TAx5ytIvCfjuwcgludHQ:1584888896185&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj_l6mdq67oAhVkh-AKHY1gCAEQ_AUoAXoECA4QAw&biw=1600&bih=762#imgrc=0jUrJcIDNCcONM

https://www.google.com/search?q=dumbbell+chest+fly&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS710US710&sxsrf=ALeKk00iUkAqik5dIVMWYNnKjwaXiD4N9w:1584888934341&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiNg8Kvq67oAhUPknIEHT8bBhcQ_AUoAXoECBEQAw&biw=1600&bih=762#imgrc=Yo6da_mSRGpDHM

https://www.google.com/search?q=dumbbell+shoulder+press&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS710US710&sxsrf=ALeKk02tBHOC7uhoCWSswvSWotcxnkR5MQ:1584888981623&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn84fGq67oAhVqU98KHRYzDUIQ_AUoAXoECBEQAw&biw=1600&bih=762#imgrc=BYnlQRc75JASYM

https://www.google.com/search?q=lateral+delt+raise&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS710US710&sxsrf=ALeKk01urGHqishYIOKgpzVqoetcYFMwvQ:1584888751304&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjbq57Yqq7oAhUzlnIEHYNuCnQQ_AUoAXoECA4QAw&biw=1600&bih=762&dpr=1.6#imgrc=IFdDSos0vhRXPM

Due to the unfortunate circumstances of the COVID-19 virus, almost all gyms around the country have closed. This means the only way to workout is at home where most of us do not have access to much or any equipment. However, it is important to keep working out in order to keep the progress you have made to this point. 

Here are some exercises that everyone can do even without any in-home equipment or weights. 

Push ups (Incline-Decline-Flat) for your chest. 

Diamond push ups for your triceps. 

Sit ups, crunches, planks, roman-twists etc. for you core. Core is very easy to hit without any equipment at all. 

Pull ups (if you have anything that you can do a pull up on).

Also, try and get creative and look around your house to see what you could use as a weight. For example, shoulders are easy to hit with a light around of weight. A gallon of milk could be used for a lateral fly for your shoulder. 

The concept of fasted cardio is widely debated in the fitness community. The idea is that performing cardio on an empty stomach provides much more efficient fat loss than normal cardio. 

Bill Phillips authored the book Body for Life in the late 1990′s. He is credited with creating the idea of fasted exercise. Later in 2012, studies were done comparing athletes who ate before their cardio, and athletes who performed their cardio fasted. The study showed that the athletes who performed their cardio in a fasted state saw much quicker fat loss than the other group. There is a link to this study at the bottom. 

Fasted cardio and fasted lifting are both great options for increasing the speed of fat loss. This will also motivate you to wake up and get to the gym so you can eat sooner. 

One very common question is whether you should do cardio before you lift or after you lift. We are here to tell you that if you want to build muscle and burn fat in the most efficient way possible, then you want to do cardio at the end. 

If you perform cardio workouts prior to lifting weights, you will fatigue your muscles and you will not be able to perform weight training as effectively. Performing cardio first, especially if you are someone who is not in the best aerobic shape, will burn a lot of stored energy that will not be available during your lift. 

By lifting first, your body will use up a lot stored carbohydrates (sugars) for strength. Thus, by the time you end your lift and begin cardio, your body will resort to burning fat for energy. All things being equal, it is much more effective to burn fat through cardio than through weight training. Therefore, you want to maximize your fat loss by performing cardio at your body’s ideal time. 

Keep in mind, this strategy is for someone who has the goal of gaining strength and definition. If your goal is to build cardiovascular endurance, than you might want to start your workout with cardio to put more emphasis on it. But, to maximize fat loss and minimize muscle loss, you want to perform your cardio at the end of your workout. 

Never skip a Monday in the gym. Going to the gym on a Monday will give you a great start to your week that you feel good about. It will also help motivate you to keep coming to the gym everyday. Personally, I prefer taking one off day per week, usually Saturday. However, if you are taking two days off per week, this is completely fine especially for beginners. Just make sure that you always start your week with a great Monday workout. 

Last week we posted about different types of workout splits. The Push/Pull/Legs workout was one of the split mentioned in the article. Today we want to give you an example a great, compete pull workout to help you get through that Monday lift. 

Warm up - Warming up is very important and often skipped by many beginners. I usually prefer doing 7-10 minutes on the bike just to get my body warmed up and my blood flowing. 

Exercise 1 - Lat Pull-down 4 sets of 8-10 reps. Increase the weight each set. 

Exercise 2 - T-bar row. 4 sets of 8-10 reps increase the weight at least two times during the four sets. If your gym does not have a T-bar machine, you can do barbell rows. 

Exercise 3 - Seated bicep curls super-set with rear delt flies. 4 sets 8-10 reps for each exercise. 

Exercise 4 - Low Cable Row. 4 Sets 8-10 reps. 

Exercise 5 - Cable EZ bar curls finisher. 100 reps, random selection. Random selection is when you have a partner move your weight up or down, throughout the course of your 100 reps. This is definitely not easy; but, you will leave the gym, with a great arm pump and feeling good about your workout. 

Core - Monday is great day to start your week with core after your workout. 

Photo Sources

https://www.google.com/search?q=lat+pulldown&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS710US710&sxsrf=ALeKk02mnAH9OoytZOpoK4h6jwYyRpht8g:1583172396222&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjP5q3isPznAhXkgnIEHYx7AvYQ_AUoAXoECBEQAw&biw=1600&bih=762#imgrc=mMuXkgpcLg4qCM

https://www.google.com/search?q=t+bar+row&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS710US710&sxsrf=ALeKk00_up5954ETP7IOdyxcgU8bDUNCKw:1583172449654&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjZ-ur7sPznAhVImHIEHRdGAfYQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1600&bih=762#imgrc=yjqfnM_2raE28M

https://www.google.com/search?q=seated+bicep+curl&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS710US710&sxsrf=ACYBGNQ7tYTGvCjcg0yxJgHLKtfalCpwFA:1583172558062&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwir1MOvsfznAhXvhOAKHULoD3sQ_AUoAXoECA8QAw&biw=1600&bih=762#imgrc=n3Bytn5C0TxDuM

https://www.google.com/search?q=low+cable+row&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS710US710&sxsrf=ACYBGNSC1xK0NK3ABi0ouV9uMpjjcgMGuQ:1583172599388&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiM3Z3DsfznAhUHnOAKHeMnCAIQ_AUoAXoECA0QAw&biw=1600&bih=762#imgrc=fvbJcC7DePngvM

One of the most common mistakes that new lifters make is focusing too much on the Biceps with the hope of building larger arms. However, the truth is that the Triceps are much more responsible for the appearance of big arms. It is important that, especially for people new to lifting, to understand how to hit each part of the Triceps properly.  

As the name “tri” suggests, there are three heads to the triceps. The three heads are the Medial head, the Lateral head and the Long head. The Long head and Lateral heads are responsible for the horseshoe look that can be developed in the arm. The Medial head, which is much harder to see and hit, is tucked under the Long head. 

Therefore, the perfect way to hit triceps is to ensure that you are hitting each one of the three heads during every triceps workout. 

Exercises to hit the Long head consist mainly of exercises that are performed over head. This can be a skull crusher, overhead dumbbell extension or an overhead cable raise to name a few. 

Exercises for the Lateral head are mainly push down exercises. Some of these can include bench dips, normal dips, cable rope push-down etc. 

Lastly, the Medial head; which, is the hardest of the three heads to hit. The easiest and most effective way to hit this head is to perform a kickback exercise. This can either be a dumbbell kicked back or a cable kickback. But, it is important to fully extend and squeeze the muscle when performing these exercises to get the most out of it. 

There are many other exercises that you can do to hit each of these heads. However, it is important to understand how each head works in order to properly hit it. Many beginners make the mistake of hitting multiple exercises for one head and neglecting to hit the others. 

Here is a video from Athlean-X that gives even more detail about each head of the triceps and how to hit it properly. 

One of the best things about working out is the ability to get extremely creative with the exercises you choose to do. However, most people tend to get into a plan that requires hitting certain muscle groups depending on the day of the week. This allows you to get into a rhythm and also helps build accountability for yourself. 

Total Body Split

The first workout split is called the Total Body split and it is the most common among lifters and particularly effective with beginners. This is a five to six day split that hits a different muscle group per day. The typical split goes as follows:

Day 1 - Chest 

Day 2 - Back 

Day 3 - Legs 

Day 4 - Shoulders 

Day 5 - Legs 

Day 6 - Cardio/Core

Day 7 - Rest

This is great split because it allows you to focus on one muscle group per day. It also allows for the most time for recovery for each group. 

Push Pull Legs 

This split is great for lifters who have been lifting for a while and have began to hit some plateaus. Push is defined as all of the “pushing” exercises. This typically includes chest, triceps, shoulders. Pull is all of the “pulling” exercises. This is typically defined as back, biceps, rear-delts and traps. And legs is simply a leg workout. There are two different ways to do this split. 

Day 1 - Push

Day 2 - Pull 

Day 3 - Legs 

Day 4 - Rest 

Day 5 - Push 

Day 6 - Pull 

Day 7 - Legs 

Or 

Rest Day 7 and jump right back into the push/pull/legs cycle on Day 4. 

Full Body Split

The last workout split is called the full-body split. This involves hitting each muscle group everyday for 4-5 days per weak. However, you would one do one, maybe two max, exercises for each muscle group. It is important to only do one or two exercises per group per day because you do not want to over strain your muscles; which, can easily happen when hitting the same muscle everyday. 

All of these workout splits can very effective when done properly. Focus on form and intensity and most importantly, patience. A later post will provide more information for how long you should perform each split before switching.